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Editor's Note

Updated Oct. 1, 2001 12:01 a.m. ET

The people profiled were selected several weeks before the events of Sept. 11. We chose them because we felt their positions, their accomplishments -- and the challenges they faced -- made them important global figures.

Now, in this new world, the challenges they face are greater than ever. And their responses to those challenges will reverberate in ways we never could have imagined just three weeks ago.

Who are these people?

They are people like Gordon Brown, Britian's chancellor of the exchequer, who will have a central role in Europe's quest for a "third way" between socialism and capitalism. Or Jose Bove, a leader in the antiglobalization movement that has roiled so many companies and countries. Or James Liu, whose often-impossible job is to teach Chinese bureaucrats to keep their hands out of the country's securities markets. Or Maria Aramburuzabala, who is breaking all sorts of corporate and cultural molds in Mexico. Or Canada's Paul Martin, whose performance as finance minister has made him the front-runner to become prime minister. Or Naoki Inose, a best-selling Japanese author who has written scathing attacks on the country's largest public companies -- and is now in a position to do something about them.

They are, in other words, people of power, with crucial jobs at a crucial time. They are people you may not have heard of until now. But once you know them, they are definitely people you're going to want to watch.